“A Rawlins telegram says that all the men were arrested by Sheriff Hadsell of Carbon County and given a preliminary hearing yesterday afternoon. Bail was fixed at a $5,000 bond. Each lyncher was allowed to post each others bond.”

The Grand Jury was convened for August 25, 1889, but before the witnesses could testify, they begin to mysteriously die or disappear. Shortly after the hangings, Gene Crowder disappeared, never to be seen again. Some said that his father heard of the affair and took him away to protect him from the powerful members of the Stock Association. John DeCorey, the boy who worked for Ellen, allegedly went to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, but was never summoned for the hearing.

Then Frank Buchanan also disappeared before the hearing. He was reportedly last seen in protective custody in Cheyenne, Wyoming. However, a year or so later a reporter working for the Chicago Inter Ocean reported seeing him. Years later, a notebook was discovered in the attic of a Kansas City home that tells where Buchanan wondered all over the country for the next year or two, hiding from the powerful cattlemen and fearing for his life.

Ralph Cole, Jim Averell's nephew, mysteriously died on the very day of the scheduled hearing, possibly from poisoning.

With no witnesses to testify, all charges were dropped against the six cattlemen. No attempts were ever made to investigate the death of Ralph Cole, nor the three disappearances of the primary witnesses against the six ranchers.

Rumors abounded that Bothwell had some of his cowboys ride to the different homesteaders and small ranchers telling them, if they testified against the ranchers that they would be burned out or worse – end up like Jim and Ella.

A neighbor by the name of Tex would later say that the whole affair grew out of land troubles. Averell had contested the land Conner was trying to hold, had made Durbin some trouble on a final proof, and kept Bothwell from fencing the whole Sweetwater Valley. He also stated that Ella Watson had a small bunch of cattle and had come by them honestly – freshly branded because she had only recently recorded her brand. Nevertheless, Tex did not come forward for the hearing.

There were others too, whom did not come forward – two from the local newspaper, the Sweetwater Chief. Having been alerted by two unnamed cattleman, H.B. Fetz, the newspapers editor and his assistant J.N. Speer witnessed the abduction with field glasses from the rooftop of the newspaper building. Watching the angry procession file very near they first saw the procession as they made their way to examine Ellen’s calves and again later, when they had abducted Ella and Jim. Neither volunteered to give testimony at the grand jury hearings that were later held in Rawlings.

Another witness to the abduction was a man by the name of Dan Fitger. While Fitger was plowing a hay meadow, he could clearly see the lynching party down in the river bottom, with Buchanan following far behind. Fitger never came forward at the hearings, but years later told this story to his family.

Range Cattle.

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